[REQ] Installer should remember the portable path

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Re: [REQ] Installer should remember the portable path

by TheBestPessimist » Tue Jun 15, 2021 12:17 am

@lowlander and @TIV73

I disagree with your opinion.

Please see another opinion on portable installs here: https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/F ... ar_version

That registry entry is a very good investment imo, with an extremely small footprint.

Re: [REQ] Installer should remember the portable path

by Barry4679 » Sun Jun 13, 2021 5:08 am

Hi TIV73,

you make good points that I had not given consideration to.
TIV73 wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 2:49 am Besides, it's a common expectation for portable applications to be self-contained and leave no traces on a system after its installation directory has been deleted. While having external artifacts makes an application, technically speaking, not less portable because you can still copy it to a different location while preserving all settings, I would definitely consider it bad design and/or a bug.
There would be a very small footprint if a MM5 Portable install stored the install path as a new data value in SOFTWARE\MediaMonkey, only if that node pre-exists.

I know that it wouldn't directly help the OP, who solely installs MM as a portable install.
And I suppose it is a kludge, but it would be of some small assistance to anyone who is frequently installing fresh portable (ie. beta testers).

And assuming that this not going to happen, you appeared to have answered the OP's rhetorical question. :D
TheBestPessimist wrote: Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:31 pm I use portable MM (why wouldn't anyone use that?).

Re: [REQ] Installer should remember the portable path

by TIV73 » Sun Jun 13, 2021 2:49 am

Installation artifacts like registry entries, environment variables, user settings outside the installation folder, etc. created by a portable application will remain on the host indefinitely because there's no uninstallation mechanism to clean them up like there would be for a regular installation. Since the user is in most cases not aware of these additional objects it's a surefire way to leave the host in an unclean state after the application has been removed.

Besides, it's a common expectation for portable applications to be self-contained and leave no traces on a system after its installation directory has been deleted. While having external artifacts makes an application, technically speaking, not less portable because you can still copy it to a different location while preserving all settings, I would definitely consider it bad design and/or a bug.

Re: [REQ] Installer should remember the portable path

by Barry4679 » Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:00 am

BMF wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 12:50 am Edit: Silly idea of mine. The installer does not know where to look ... more ideas please ;-)
Just have two registry sub-nodes for MM5 ... one for a non-portable install, and the other for the last portable installation
Similar to here. where I I have two different versions of Python installed.

I think that the installer should get smarter, including the OP's good idea here.

Re: [REQ] Installer should remember the portable path

by BMF » Fri Jun 11, 2021 12:50 am

Hi there,
the idea isn't that bad. A little bit of luxury is always okay ;-). And there is an ini file under mm5/portable. Maybe the needed information can be stored in this place.

greetings
bmf

Edit: Silly idea of mine. The installer does not know where to look ... more ideas please ;-)

Re: [REQ] Installer should remember the portable path

by Lowlander » Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:39 pm

The point of the Portable Install is that it doesn't use the Registry so I doubt that this will be implemented.

[REQ] Installer should remember the portable path

by TheBestPessimist » Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:31 pm

User story: I always install the latest beta, so I install MM a lot. I use portable MM (why wouldn't anyone use that?).

Currently, each time I select the tickbox "Portable Installation", the default folder for installing MM is `C:\MediaMonkey 5`.

My feature request is: save in the registry a key "MM5 portable installation path", which is the path where MM5 was installed. The installer always updates this path to the one used during the actual installation process, so that next time i want to update MM, that path is preset.

What this feature is not necessarily supposed to do: MM does not need to remember that i SOLEY use portable install, and tick that checkbox automatically for me (when pressing next next next in the installer). If it were to do that, I would be super happy and pleased, but I can leave without.

MM installer only needs to autofill the installation path.

Default installer: https://i.imgur.com/YQi21ns.png

With my feature:
- https://i.imgur.com/BDY1AoD.png
- https://i.imgur.com/2L77av7.png

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